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Monday, November 29. 2010

i grew up in dunedin, near the bottom of new zealand's south island. it gets pretty cold there, at least it feels it, because until recently the houses were not well insulated, & no-one told us about central heating. "put another jumper on!" was mum's reply when we complained of being cold. we would only heat the room that we were in, hurrying along draughty hallways, freezing our butts on the toilet, & in the mornings pulling our clothes into the bed to get half-dressed before we got up. most winters of my childhood it would snow at least once, enough to settle thinly on the ground and distrupt the traffic so we'd have a day off school. we'd take the metal tea-tray and large plastic bags, & slide down the neighbour's front lawn (it had a much better slope & length for sliding than our garden). when i was around 12 i did a newspaper delivery round in early the mornings, & it was always a pleasure to be the first one to step in the fresh crust of snow. but the next morning, or even by the end of the day, the snow would be reduced to a dirty slush. sometimes we would persuade mum to let us put some snow in the freezer to save it, but the results were never satisfying. dunedin is on the coast, so the salty sea air melts the snow, & in fact the temperatures are not really so cold - it rarely reaches zero.

winter view from the balcony

but munich is a different story altogether; today the forecast high is -1, with a low of -16; fine snow is falling constantly, so that footprints disappear soon after you walk. it's really like a christmas card image outside, the trees heavy with snow & people wrapped up with fur-lined hoods. i made an attempt at going for a swim this morning - some friends were going to pick me up, but they couldn't get their car out because of the snow; so i walked to the bus stop and waited for the bus. and waited. and waited. while i waited, i watched workmen shovelling the footpaths, clearing piles of leaves & snow into the back of a little truck. cars went past with lumps of dirty snow dropping off their mudguards. a man in a motorised wheelchair went bravely and surprisingly quickly along the footpath. 3 buses went in the opposite direction. after 30 minutes of waiting i gave up. i went into the supermarket & bought clear nail-polish to repair the runs in my strumpfhosen, & as i came out i saw the bus leaving. i walked home with my umbrella up & my furry hood falling over my eyes, & was impressed to see that the postie was still cycling.

they tell me i'll get sick of it. perhaps i will, & i'm glad that tomorrow the forecast is fine, because i'm flying to italy for magfest torino. but right now the snow is beautiful & exciting. compare this image with the autumn scene just 6 weeks ago ...

Friday, November 26. 2010

"outside of a dog, a woman's best friend is a book. inside of a dog, it's too dark to read!" wrote diane torr on the inside cover of the copy of her book, "sex, drag and male roles" that she gave to me when i had lunch with her recently in glasgow. i don't know about the inside of a dog, but i can tell you right now that the inside of her book is a great place to be. it's a fascinating account of the development of the new york drag king scene, told alongside the story of diane's career as a performance artist and "man for a day" workshop leader. it's told very inclusively, covering how things developed on both coasts of the usa and the ways that various movements, from punk music to erotic dancing, generated the wider context that facilitated the emergence of gender-bending performance art. it's highly readable, sometimes laugh-out-loud, & the voice moves easily between diane and co-author stephen bottoms. great book - buy it now!

another book that has recently been launched is adriana zaharijević's "postajanje ženom" (becoming woman); unfortunately my srpski is not quite good enough to read this one yet, but i'm told it's a history of feminism and gender identity; the official english blurb says: "One is neither born nor becomes a woman at some specific point in time. Becoming Woman seeks to explore two substantial points: modes, strategies and resistances to the sedimentation we name "woman"/"man"; and the fact that the injunction to speak and think in the name of a singular identity - be it even the historically marginalized identity of woman - necessarily entails exclusions and hierarchies." last week, as i started reading diane's book about women becoming men, i flew to belgrade to participate in a collaborative presentation for adriana's book about women becoming women; this was not to be a "proper" book launch (that had already happened) but a performance event that would expand from adriana's ideas into the future, via the open door of cyberformance. we had a few short days for 5 of us (one who was not physically present) to meet, discuss and create the event. we had plenty of technology at the venue - a strong wireless connection, 3 beamers, fancy remote-control web cam, full sound system - but only just over 2 hours to set it all up, & no time for anything like a run-through.

the premise of the event was that adriana had invited us into her living room for coffee and a chat, starting with the book but moving on from there. there was an audience of at least 100 who, unusually for serbia, started arriving well before the official start time of 8pm. we had UpStage projected onto one wall, on another wall was the skype projection of ana vilenica who was in stuttgart, and i kept the third beamer to use with my flexible mirror in the finale - an UpStage jam with me projecting & flexing the word "woman" in many different languages across the other projections, the audience, the ceiling, etc. (the photo at left is by jelena lalić). despite a few problems - mostly due to not having enough time to think about everything - on the whole the event went well & afterwards many people said how interesting it was & that they had never seen anything like it before. it was a fun project; i particularly enjoyed seeing my friend milica get inspired by UpStage, & collaborating face to face with my UpStage colleage mijana perić, with whom i usually work remotely. hvala mnogo zoe & the rekonstrukcija ženski fond for organising!

& i love beograd, give me any excuse & i'll be there to soak up its grimy raw energy, see friends, drink rakia & observe the inevitable changes (to je neizbežno!). even a whirlwind few days with not enough time to see everyone is great, especially with the warm weather - people sitting and chatting in the parks at midnight still. now i'm back in munich & have one more working trip next week - to magfest torino in italy, where i'll lead a cyberformance workshop & give the premiere performance of "make-shift" on 5 december. after that, i'm looking forward to hunkering down for some quiet, wintry weeks at home - bring on the snow, the gluwein, & long dark evenings inside good books!

Tuesday, November 9. 2010

i've returned to münchen after just over 3 weeks in the uk. in my absence the trees have shed nearly all of their leaves, revealing hidden playgrounds and gardens, buildings, views into lower windows, the railway line nearby. at schloss nymphenberg, little wooden houses have been placed over all of the statues to prevent damage from ice (pictured at right). andy's car now has its winter tyres on. it's dark at 5pm. it must be winter, but it isn't very cold - yet.

my uk visit was mostly to work on make-shift, which paula & i gave a preview presentation of on 29th october after 2 pretty intense weeks of refining the material, technical problem-solving, and gathering the necessary equipment. for two weekends we were "in residence" at greenwarren house, the home of beaford arts, in the small north devon town of beaford. i can highly recommend the globe inn at beaford, which has a surprisingly extensive menu for a village pub, with plenty of vegetarian options.

i managed to catch up with some of my australian relatives who were in the uk, & also went up to edinburgh to see a man about a (possible) fellowship. i lived in edinburgh ten years ago, & had only been back once since then - for lunch - so it was great to have a few days to wander about auld reekie; lots of good memories came flooding back. i was surprised how little had changed - there is the gaping hole in the old town where the gilded balloon burnt down a few years ago, & at the top of leith walk what was a gaping construction site for many years is now a glass & metal cinema & shopping complex. the other major change is still in progress, and that's the new tramline. much of the roads in the centre are dug up for this, & a shiny new tram is sitting on the tracks on princes street.

as well as having a tour of the edinburgh college of art & discussing my possible fellowship proposal, i caught up with friends & did some much-needed relaxing, one evening at the movies & another watching videos with the friends i was staying with. i also made it over to glasgow to have lunch with diane torr, who has just published a book about about her drag king performance practice and workshop, "sex, drag and male roles". a copy of it is sitting by my bedside - i haven't started it yet because i'm so busy with things for make-shift, but next week i'm going to belgrade for a few days (for another book launch) so i'm saving it to start on the plane.

meanwhile germany has been full of internal termoil. a couple of weeks ago the country was shocked when police over-reacted at a peaceful protest in stuttgart, against the proposed costly and unnecessary rebuilding of the main station; water cannons were turned on the crowd, and many people suffered serious injuries including some who lost their eyes. this week, media attention has been focussed on the north of germany where thousands of anti-nuclear protestors are attempting to stop the transportation of nuclear waste, by train and truck, from nuclear power stations to a waste depot near lunenburg. and this weekend in nuremburg, there is a demonstration against changes to health insurance that will see employees carry a much larger share of the cost than their employers. even the uk is having its share of demonstrations, with students up in arms about drastic tuition fee hikes. it reminds me of my days as student president at otago ...